Water usage and consumption have always been closely monitored in some sectors, such as agriculture and other commercial industries that use large quantities of water. But drought conditions and resource conservation across the United States over the past several years have increased awareness of the importance of water conservation by residential users as well. Understanding limitations on water supply and the effects of drought, as well as the corresponding need to use water wisely and to conserve water resource has been especially felt in the southwest of the United States. California's struggles with drought conditions are well known, and statewide mandatory water consumption reductions have put the issues relating to water conservation in sharp focus for nearly all water consumers.
An integral part of controlling the amount of water that is being consumed is first having access to information about how much water is flowing into the system—for instance, into a residence. Bills from water utilities—sent periodically, typically on a monthly or bi-monthly basis—often itemize usage for the prior billing period, and that information can be useful. Unfortunately, few water users have accurate real-time information about their water usage and there is seldom any way for a water consumer to know how much water is being consumed on a real-time basis.
There are several known methods for remotely monitoring water meters. Of interest are two methods that are currently sold commercially; Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) devices and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems.
AMR devices are either integrated within the meter when manufactured or are offered as a retrofit to water meters already in place. These AMR devices monitor the water meter and store usage data until it is collected via a “water meter reader”. Typically, a water meter reader is an employee who will walk up to the meter pit, tap a plastic puck on the lid and wirelessly capture data on their handheld device via RF signal. A similar system is available via a water utility vehicle equipped with a transceiver which, when within range of the AMR device (˜100 feet), will wirelessly gather data. This data acquisition is performed periodically by the water utility and is the source of the consumption data present on bills that most residential users see.
AMI systems utilize AMR devices but replace RF connections with cellular connections which communicate with a server to gather usage data generally every 15 minutes.
But neither AMR nor AMI systems are intended for use by residential water consumers. They are designed instead for use by the water utility, are unavailable for purchase by the consumer and generally do not provide the homeowner with information about their water usage, aside from the payment period consumption summary found in the bill from the utility. Given the criticality of using water resources wisely and in some cases reducing water usage required by law to, consumers could benefit directly by having accurate and real time information about their water usage.